Starting Lineup as of Right Now:

1. Juan Pierre CF :thumbup

2. Luis Castillo 2B :thumbup

3. Mike Lowell 3B

4. Miguel Cabrera LF :thumbup

5. Paul Lo Duca C :mischief2

6. Jeff Conine 1B :thumbup

7. Juan Encarnacion RF :shifty

8. Alex Gonzalez SS :thumbup

9. Josh Beckett P :whistle

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Where were you this past year?

 

That :thumbup line-up as you put it only outscored 7 other major league squads, most of them the last place teams in the league. The pitching will be worse this year, anyway you cut it, meaning we need a better offense just to save face, let alone make the playoffs.

 

Conine, Lo Duca and Lowell are a year older, and Juan E. is looking to pop out to 1st base another 100 times.

 

I give the line up a :owned by any decent pitching

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Lowell's only 30, and Encarnacion is healthy. Plus, a full season of Lo Duca (even if he does wear down) is better than a failed Castro/Redmond platoon.

 

I'm not saying we're a lock for 7 runs a game, but we should be able to give our guys 4 runs on any night, and don't forget that Cabrera is going to be a year more experienced. Cabrera and Lowell could combine for 80 HR's and 210 RBI, I'll take that from any 4-5 hitters. The biggest question-mark will be how long we can get by giving up 2 outs an inning with Gonzalez/tjavascript:emoticon(' :shifty ')

smiliehe pitcher. Other than that, I'm fine with the lineup.

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We acctually averaged 4.4 runs a night so 4 runs a night would be a downgrade. :shifty

 

Cabrera will be better. But Lowell has seem to be on the back part of his prime. Conine will only continue to deterriorate, and he was not all that great last year, its just at some point you aren't what you used to be.

 

Teams have figured out Pierre, they just don't work out of the stretch, and it worked very well for them last year. If Cabrera gets hot teams will just pitch around him if we have loduca, conine, gonzo behind him, because it not like those guys will account for a huge amount of our rbis. I remember all the times we have a man on 3rd 1 out and one of out bottom 3 guys were up last year and they couldn't get them home. Everyone in the line up will be the same, Cabrera better, Conine slowing, Lowell perhaps losing a little more and Lo Duca will fall apart in the second half again.

What I find fallacious about this argument is that there seems to be this belief that the team will now and always be the same TYPE of team. While right now we're essentially a small ball, pitching and defense first team, when we start building a new team around the new stadium all that might go out the window.

 

My suggestion, not that I expect many to take it to heart, is worry about 2005 and let the rest of it play out as it happens.

 

This team will be in a holding pattern for the next couple of years whether we like it or not. Such is the nature of the game.